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Cheney f.i.a. Carmichael Sacramento 7 10 am the word. Welcome to finding God from the church on Cypress in Carmichael Pastor Dave Brown is in the series unleashing the power of prayer what if you discovered you couldn't really connect with God in prayer What if the things God has promised in his word became available to you in a tangible way would your life change and what might you be courageous enough to attempt or ask or enjoy hearing Pastor Dave Brown from the church on Cypress in Carmichael as he helps you discover how prayer can change your life today on unleashing the power of prayer. Misunderstand they think that prayer is one way communication with God and it's really not. What prayer is it has more to do with what God has to say with us than what we have to say to him in fact I believe that he already knows what we're going to pray before we pray it he knows what we're going to say before we say it and that's not to say that we're not supposed to do that because we are supposed to we're supposed to ask God for things he tells us we receive not because we asked not and so we know that we're supposed to ask for things but prayer is more than just what we say that God is what God has to say to us and that's especially important as we talk about what we're going to be talking about today and that is learning to obey God because in our in our prayer time as God begins to speak to us and he will by the way and I want you to kind of look at it at Bible reading as something maybe a little bit different Thank you so much James for that. Anyway you need to look at Bible reading not jazz just learning something from a text because you see the Bible is different than any other book in the world because of the fact that through the words of the Bible God speaks to us so I've actually gone so far as to say that when you are reading the Bible you are praying right have you ever thought about it that way when you're reading the Bible you are praying because you're giving an opportunity in prayer in 2 way communication with God for God to say something to you and that's what that's really what it is about and when God speaks to you through his word he's going to call you to obedience. That's what we're going to be talking about today because let me just start out by saying that obedience is vital it's critical to your ability to experience God and I want you to think about this just for a minute because in the process of experiencing God we think that we can just read the Bible maybe we can listen to a sermon we can pray and then somehow we experience God through that and people are going to see God in us but that's not how it works let me use an example from the Bible and let's take Abraham or no this list to somebody different Let's take a bring him. We're going to take Abraham as an example right God spoke to Abraham and just like God would speak to us as we're reading the scriptures or as God is speaking to us in our prayer time. God spoke to Abraham and he said Abraham I want you to go to a place I will show you and so we know in the story that for hand got up his family pack them up and started heading in a direction he didn't even know where he was going he didn't know if he was going south north east west didn't didn't matter to him God said Go so he got up and went Now imagine and then we know at least we go a little further and we member the story that he got up anyway and they went to a place and we don't know exactly where that was but wherever it was God began to show him the dream of what he was going to do and through the story we hear about 25 years of God prepping him him making mistakes doing all kinds of things but God was still fulfilling his purpose in him and Abraham obeyed God and because of that he experienced God If Abraham never left the land of the Chaldeans in the land of or if he had never left that place. But he would been praying to God and he'd been hearing God's voice do you think he would have experienced God No this is why obedience is so important the world is looking for people who have really experienced God's power and God's presence in their life they're looking for people who have a story to tell of what God did in their life but they don't see it very often because we don't understand this critical issue that obeying is is is tantamount it is absolutely necessary if we're going to experience God when God calls us to obedience he's saying I want to do a work in your life I can't do unless you do what I tell you to do and that's important obedience is critical so we learned about how we hear God's voice and we and the place that faith plays in the realm of prayer today we're going to look at our role of obedience and that role that it plays in the realm of prayer and it is so important because I think in so many churches and many people and I'm not trying to criticize people or or anything but I have found so many that are doing God's work but they're not necessarily doing his work and I know because I was a part of that I experienced that a lot in Taiwan when we 1st got there and Matthew chapter 7 verse 20 to 24 it says yes Jesus as you can actually stand up together oh no no no don't don't stand out because you don't have this scripture I forgot this is not in the Power Point so just listen carefully Matthew 7 verse 20 to 24 it says yes just as you can identify a tree by its fruit so you can identify people by their actions. Not everyone who calls out to me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter it you hear that only the people who do my will the will of My Father in heaven only those who actually do the will of my father on Judgment Day Many will say to me Lord Lord we prophesied in your name we cast out demons in your name we performed many miracles in your name but I will reply I never knew you get away from me you who break God's law anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it let me say that again anyone who listens to my teaching and another way of saying follows it is obeys it is like a person who builds a house on solid rock that's what God wants us to understand this verse tells us that hearing God's voice and doing what he says determines what we should do what God tells us as we relate with him in prayer determines what we're actually supposed to be doing now in contrast many times I remember in my experience as a believer. Going into a church and I thought that my role was that I was supposed to go in there and commit to Christ in that church and then I was supposed to find something to do and ask God to bless it and there's something wrong with that it's like putting the cart before the horse because what really what we should be doing is we should be going to the Lord in prayer and then when the Lord speaks to us in the midst of prayer then we obey what he tells us to do and then and only then do we really obey and follow the will of God. You see I want you to notice that King David when he became King it was not his it was not his choice to do that that was not his idea remember what happened you know Saul had failed had failed God and had failed Israel he'd gone off and sought mediums and started started to do things on his own he was a total mess he went and he would not wait for Samuel come to present the offering as they were getting ready to go in battle so he got impatient took matters into his own hands we talked about that last we were really good about taking matters into our own hands aren't we and so that's what that's what he did and as a result of that God said I'm very sad that I put him in the position of this and so he said From now on what I'm going to do is Samuel I want you to go out and I want you to find someone and I will show you who that person is and so you need to go to this place over here and Jesse is the father of this house he's got so many signs and among his son is the new king of Israel God's idea not David's idea right when God when no other built the ark that was not his idea that was God's idea when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt that was God's idea it was not Moses idea you see where I'm going with this another words God spoke they obeyed they experience God That's how it works and so when we pray we need to realize that as we're praying God at his time and his place is going to reveal something that we're supposed to do now I want to just kind of step back for a minute and I want us to look at ministries in church. Ok now I'm not saying that all the ministries in the church shouldn't be here or anything but if you have a ministry going on and you have nobody to fill that ministry you know what that tells me that tells me that God is not telling us to do that ministry because if God were telling us to do that ministry he would give us somebody in the church would fill them with passion for this ministry would equip them with the gifts and the abilities that were necessary for that ministry and that ministry would thrive by his power and by His Spirit it's Ok to let a ministry die by the way to disappear it is all right for to do that if it ceases to fulfill its function if it only exists just to just because it's always been there and that's one of the pillars of the church we need to kick that pillar out God will fill it with something else and I would much rather God fill it with something that is actually doing something by the way I want you to think about this if a visitor comes and they see people have committed to something that there are not really committed but doing something does that excite them about being a part of this church I guarantee you it doesn't it what they say what they people get excited about is when they see people whose lives have been changed by God who God has called them to do something and they can't wait to get there and do it and they put their heart and their soul into serving God in that ministry that's what people are attracted to and I want I want to think about this because you know part part of coming into Cyprus and part of us getting on the track of where God wants us to do is pulling out the stuff that doesn't need to be there and putting in some of the things that do and it's not like I'm going to come in as your pastor and I'm saying you know I've got my ideas and I'm going to tell you what we're going to do and you have to follow me no no no no no that's not the kind of pastor I am I would never do that to you and here's the reason why. Because the last time I checked this isn't my church believe it or not it's not even your church who. Should I run. This to it's not our church it's Jesus Church. And we get to belong to it just like just like my house is my house not my kids house they get to be there because I'm there and I let them be there I love them they're my children they should be there but they don't get to tell me what goes on in my house I'm the boss I'm the dad and that's not that doesn't mean that I loaded over them any more than Jesus lords it over us but he is in charge. And the last time I checked the Holy Spirit that is to me that he gave me is the same Holy Spirit that is in you and he's going to lead us all to understand what he wants us to do and that's how we learn to obey Him So this verse tells us that hearing God's voice and doing what he says is so important John 1027 says My sheep respond to my voice I'm reading this from God's Word Translation I love this. My sheep hear My voice they respond to my voice and I know who they are and they follow me to me that is Christianity 101 that is the very base of understanding of Christianity My sheep know my voice they hear my voice they respond to my voice and they follow me that's what Christianity is all about that's what prayer is all about so if prayer is 2 way communication with God and God already knows what I'm going to pray about before I pray it then obviously what he has what he says to me is far more important than what I have to say to him so then how do I begin to obey God Well 1st of all and this is this is critical this is so important because a lot of people think that you can do this without this point and you cannot Ok the 1st point is this we learn to obey by being in fellowship with God we have to be any relationship with him we have to be in fellowship with God We come to we come to all Gabe a God 1st of all because we've been in relationship with him 1st John chapter 3 verse 24 says listen carefully those who obey God's commandments live in fellowship with Him and He with them and we know that he lives with us because the Holy Spirit lives in us right so that verse makes it clear you cannot obey God unless you have fellowship with him. Unless you have fellowship with God anything that you do that causes you to think that you are obeying him that you are obeying Him He did not tell you that unless you are in fellowship with Him let me say that again anything that you do that causes you to think that you're obeying him he didn't cause you to obey Him unless you are in a regular relationship with God so that basically means that for for if you have not been faithfully in the Word of God and praying and he has become distant by the way you can become distant from God Believe me the whole story of the Old Testament following Solomon where the kings either follow God or disobeyed God shows the picture that people can drift away from God and follow their own devices and it can as it just as it happened with them and the consequence of that choice happen to them it can happen to us just as you know if we stop listening to the voice of God If we stop praying if we stop seeking Him with all of our heart and making him the main thing and the the main purpose for existence in our life if we cease to do that then we will drift apart as just the way it is and so when you understand that then and all of a sudden you realize this fellowship thing is kind of critical. It's kind of important if I'm going to be able to obey God and experience Him so I can't just flip the switch and turn it on and say I know I haven't been with you God but God I pray that you would bless what I'm about to do today and I pray that that God that I could obey you it doesn't happen that way it happens in the midst of a relationship with God and if you've been apart from God and he hasn't been there with you for a while the place that you begin and it's the same place that the kings of Israel began when they started to mess up was that they confess their sins to God and they took him seriously in fact this last week I was reading in my quiet time about and I can't remember the name of the king but his father had been very disobedient to God and he begged God for forgiveness and he said God we have we have walked away from you we have followed idols we have done all of these things and God I am so sorry and he led all of Israel in fact one of the people who did that was King a son and. I think his 1st Chronicles are 2nd no 2nd Chronicles Chapter 15 and he said God we have we have torn you we have desecrated your temple we have done all of these horrible things God have mercy on us and he made the Israelites follow God and I thought this was really interesting he forced them to do it and he said if you don't we're going to kill you. That you need to see God with all your all all your heart if you don't you are you are hurting us so we're going to get rid of you. And that was pretty serious and I promise you I'm not going to do that we're not going to have a big witch hunt or anything like that here but the same point is that when we seek Him with all our heart when we have fellowship with Him we get the sin stuff out of the way so that the relationship with God can be open and fresh and relevant and real then God begins to be build on that fellowship and fellowship takes time I mentioned earlier that I can't I can't go to my wife and say Honey I love you so much I'm going to spend 5 minutes a day with you yeah that doesn't work I know it doesn't work in any of your marriages and it sir doesn't work in my marriage in fact when those things have happened I hear about it and I think God I hear about it she lets me know you sure aren't around much lately you know and I don't I don't we never get to talk and immediately I know we need to we need to change some things because we can't get too busy Well it can happen in our relationship with God we can get so busy that we don't spend time with him. New New Living Translation quotes Matthew 723 there's actually 2 new live translations there's a newer one and an older one and the older one says this get away from me I don't know you talking about the Matthew 723 passage get away from me I don't know you you were doing things I didn't authorize and I think that's really interesting there are a lot of people serving supposedly serving God but God didn't authorize them to do that and that's the point. That when we do ministry when we do service God has to tell us to do it he has he has to offer arise that this is something that needs to be done why because he's the leader of the ship he's the one that terminus what happens in the ship and if we're going off doing something else that has nothing to do with what he's wanting to do then we miss the boat you see we forget something we you know we often times go ask God oh God I really feel like I'm supposed to do this oh god come bless what I'm doing as if God who has been working for thousands of years would leave his direction and stop and come and bless what you're doing no that's not how God works Henry Black would be and experiencing God says that this way he says that you know God is at work around you he's always been at work around you and what God does is he invites you to join him in his work and so God is working around you now you might say well how do I know what God is doing where every you work wherever you go to school whatever happens in those places God is working in the people around you and one of the ways that you know that God is inviting you in fact I was so excited I don't remember who it was if you remember this conversation and please raise your hand real quick so I can remember who it was you know Teflon bring you know I forget things. But someone was saying that someone either in their work or their school started to ask them questions about Jesus can't remember who that was the Bible says no one seeks God. No one is right says you know what that means that if someone is asking about Jesus they didn't do it on their own initiative God is working and when you see people asking questions about Christianity asking questions about Jesus asking questions about the by asking questions about the church asking questions about your faith you need to realize there ought to be a neon sign blinking in front of your face that says God is wor